I am so excited to let you in on a little secret. I have a wonderful opportunity to work with 8 talented mixed media instructors in an upcoming 9 week online class,RADIANTThe brains behind this fabulous course is none other than the talented Effy Wild, popular for her online art journaling class, ‘Book of Days’.

9 Teachers, 9 styles, 9 faces, 18 lessons – starting October 1 2014.

Come join me on this creative adventure.I look forward to creating with you.

I am now back from an adventure of a lifetime. At the end of February I and fellow companion Jenni D’Amato traveled across the seas to the Santa Cruz mountains of Northern California, for a 4-day art retreat, An Artful Journey, organised by the wonderful Cindy Woods.

I was not expecting the smiles, laughter and companionship of like minded souls that filled the rooms, the buildings and corridors of this wonderfully stunning retreat. I am extremely grateful for everyone that shared a piece of themselves with Jenni and I and it was with a very heavy heart that we waited in the empty dinning hall for our ride to the San Jose Airport, to start our long trip back home to Australia. The dining hall, which once was filled with the chit chat and laughter of beautiful creative women during meal times was now filled with the eerie sound of silence and the happy memories of the previous few days. Congratulations Cindy on a success event.

Two years ago I enrolled in Flora Bowley’s online class, Bloom True. I was eager to learn something new, but also wanted to try something different than my normal style/s of artwork.

What I discovered was a whole new approach to painting. I’ve always enjoyed painting, but drawing has always been my first love, however since experiencing Flora’s intuitive approach to painting, as well as her Brave and inspiring approach to life, I can honestly say I am a much more enriched and soulful artist and have a new found love of painting.

Amidst my artwork that you may be more familiar with, my bright and cheerful Flora inspired artworks have been surrounding me in my studio of late. I’ve been trying to hone my intuitive painting skills, while finding my own style, before fully sharing my bold and bright new works with the big wide web. Over the last few years I have seen so many works of art that have been inspired by Flora, but have not been completely the artist’s style, rather an interweaving of the artist and Flora’s style. So I’ve been dabbling in the background, trying to find my own style of intuitive, free flowing and happy abstract art.

I still continue with my style/s that you would be most familiar with but thought I’d finally show you this other string to my bow.

Flora’s generous and soulful style of teaching has inspired thousands of people to step boldly into a world where art is born with spontaneity and joy. Now the chance to bloom true is available to you wherever you are in the world through this five week online painting adventure!

I wanted to introduce you to Carla Sonheim, an illustrator and online art instructor known for using innovative exercises and techniques to help students of all levels embrace a more playful approach to creating art. She is the author of “Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun” and “The Art of Silliness: A Creativity Book for Everyone.”

For the last three years her focus has been on creating engaging online art classes, where she teaches and also presents well-known guest artists. She made this Paper Doll tutorial in anticipation of her next online class, “2014: Year of the Fairy Tale,” which begins January 20, 2014. You can find our more about Carla and her art and classes here:

STEP BY STEP

1. Gather your supplies.

2. Lightly sketch in an outline of your doll. Keep your hand loose, and try not to worry about exact proportions (sometimes the most charming characters emerge when we let go of perfection!).

3. Using lots of water, mix up a color to use as the skin tones. Paint face, arms and feet. When face has had a chance to dry, get some red pigment on your brush and “dot” it into the watercolor quickly. The color should begin to spread out a bit for some nice rosy cheeks.

4. Let dry completely.

5. Paint in some hair; let dry completely.

6. Cut out your paper doll, and…

7. Play!

Carla Bio:

Carla Sonheim is a painter, illustrator, and online art instructor known for using innovative techniques to help students of all levels embrace a playful approach to creating art. She is also the author of the “Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun.” Carla’s paintings have been showcased in many galleries nationwide, as well as private and corporate collections. For the last three years her focus has been on creating engaging online art classes, where she teaches and also presents well-known guest artists.

Happy New Year to you all and a BIG thank you for supporting me on my artistic journey this year.

‘I Give You this Beauty’ by Kylie Pepyat-Fowler

My apologies for not posting as often as I would have liked. I’m hoping in my efforts to become more organized this year that you will see more regular posts. If you also follow my facebook page you will have been able to keep up to date with my workings over the last 12 months.

My plan this year is to share more, not only my completed artwork but also the happenings behind the scene, both the physical happenings in the studio and the goings on in my head. What you see here on my blog is not the only type of artistic work that I do and I’m planning on adding a few more projects to my repertoire.

I also plan to share the work and offerings from other artists that inspire me. My inspiration comes from such a wide variety of places and I hope to share this in order to inspire you on your own artistic journey.

To make following me even easier for you here are a few sites where you can find me:

I’m planning to add more prints to my store this year, so if there is every an image of mine you would like as a print don’t hesitate to let me know and I’ll put it in my store. I’ve reduced the price of quite a few of my artworks, which you can view here in the ‘Monthly Specials’ section of my shop.

I am truly grateful and feel very blessed to have you visit my tiny art journey space on the wide world web. I wish the coming year sees your life overflowing with love, happiness, creativity, success, peace and many memorable moments.

I’ve been all over the place when it comes to creating lately. I’ve got many, many projects on the go in many different mediums, on many different substrates and in many different sizes.

‘Dream Catcher’ – Sold

I’ve consciously made the decision to let go of any expectations I or others may have and create purely from my intuition. All decisions, including decisions about topic, style, colour palette, medium, size, substrate, etc, etc are all made on the spot without too much thought. I’m creating by the seat of my pants, so to speak.

‘Feather Dreadlocks’

As a result I’ve found that I’m creating more and feel much happier while doing it. There is a kind of ‘freeing’ feeling about it all. A kind of liberation.

‘Mermaid Bubbles’

So I challenge you this week, this month, for the rest of this year to let go of what is slowing you down. To what is holding you back. To what or who is dulling your sparkle. Try creating for you. Do not plan. Do not predict or place expectations. Just grab your creative tools and start creating.

‘The Journey Begins’

I’d love to hear what it is that holds you back from your creative endeavors.

I recently entered the Warracknabeal Art Expo competition, the theme being ‘Country Life’. I entered two art pieces in and won 1st prize with the following mixed media artwork, titled ‘Tyre Swing’. I’ve placed this artwork in my Blissful Pumpkin Art Store. Click on the first image to visit my store.

‘Tyre Swing’

I won ‘People’s Choice Award’ for my 2nd entry titled ‘Florascape’, which is approximately 1m x 1.2m on stretched canvas. I am very happy to say that this art piece has since sold. Many thanks =D.